Topics Covered

Central Travel Accounts (CTA)

The Central Travel Account (CTA) allows departments to charge airline, rail/bus tickets and specified lodging as outlined below to a centrally billed "cardless" account. This is NOT individual liability requiring reimbursement- budgets are charged directly. Use of a department's Central Travel Account(CTA) account is preferred when booking airfare for efficiency and easy reconciliation.

Guidelines

Non-UW travelers who are faculty or staff candidates are limited to per diem.

Only room and tax should be charged on the CTA. Other hotel charges should be paid by the individual. If the expense is reimbursable, the traveler may submit an Expense Report.

The department must obtain an itemized statement from the hotel showing the breakdown of the total charges by room, night, and guest name.

If unallowable charges are billed to the CTA, the department is responsible for reconciling these charges to 64-XXXX discretionary funds or obtaining reimbursement from the traveler and depositing these funds using a reverse expenditure.

UW Travel Card

The UW Travel Card is an optional, individual liability card for permanent UW faculty and staff that will be employed a minimum of six months with the University and expect to take at least two business trips per year. The UW Travel Card is to be used for official university business travel expenses only. It is not intended to be used for personal purchases.

Travel card users must seek reimbursement for travel expenses from the Travel Office using eTravel. Travel Card holders are required to pay the entire balance on the card monthly. Users who have UW Travel Cards can login to PaymentNet4 to pay their monthly balances.

To request a travel card, fill out the application found in the Tutorials and Guides menu on this page. Passing an assessment is required in order to be assigned a travel card. A passing score is 83% or getting at least 10 out of 12 required questions correct. After completion and submission of this test, please review your result(s). Your score will be on the results page, just below "Total Points". The results will provide the correct answers along with an explanation of the answer.

For UW Travel Card training material, visit our training page. The training and assessment will be at the bottom of the page.

Guidelines

The credit line on a UW Travel Card varies based on the individual's credit assessment. There are three credit limits: $5,000, $3,500, $1,500. When this initial limit is reached an automatic override commences for an additional 200% or 300% for strictly travel and what the industry calls "entertainment charges" (T&E). Travel charges consist of airline, hotel/motel, automobile rental, rail, taxi, etc. "Entertainment" charges consist mainly of restaurants and other eating establishments.

Billing and Reimbursement

The UW Travel Card is issued by JPMorgan Chase directly to the user. Cardholders are personally responsible for paying all charges on the UW Travel Card.

Full payment of the balance is required by the next billing statement. If the cardholder fails to make full payment, late fees begin to incur at 60 days past due and the card is suspended.

Upon receipt of complete and proper documentation, the UW Travel Office reimburses official travel expenses in a timely manner through the online eTravel system. As a condition of accepting reimbursement from the UW, cardholders agree to use all of the reimbursement money to pay the charges in full on the UW Travel Card.

If there is a balance on the UW Travel Card, and the reimbursement money is not used to pay the balance in full, the cardholder will be subject to corrective actions for violating the terms of this policy, and will be subject to proceedings under the State Ethics Act.

Card Security

The UW Travel Card should be treated with the same security as a personal credit card:

Keep it with you or lock it in a secure place

Do not write any portion of the card number down or share the number with others.

Only use reputable vendors

Do not give the card number to a merchant to "keep on file". Sending copies of the front and back of your card to vendors with whom you are doing business is discouraged. This practice opens a greater window of opportunity for fraudulent activity to be placed on the card.

Cardholders are recommended to carefully review transactions on their statement regularly to avoid any fraudulent transactions.

Complete the Affidavit Form when received from JPMC within 7 business days.

The new replacement card will be sent to the CTS office within 3-5 business days. Cardholders can pick up the card at our office or request it to be forwarded to your office by emailing uwcts@uw.edu.

Lost or stolen cards must be reported immediately to:

JP Morgan Chase

Inside the U.S.: 1-800-270-7760 / 1-800-VISA-911

Outside the U.S./Canada: 1-801-281-5825 / 1-410-581-9994

UW Procurement Card Services 206-543-5252

Account Cancellation

Request cancellation of your UW Travel Card by emailing uwcts@uw.edu with the name and the last 4 digits of the account number. Please note, upon separation from the UW, outstanding balances must be paid in full and cancelled card will need to be turned in to your department.